November 27, 2014

Miles and miles of stocking stitch! Knitted in Spring 2010 in DIC's Classy, this was a very short lived project. I (hand)washed the cardigan but wasn't too careful about draping it over the dryer and the weight of water stretched it out so much that it was unwearable. I cut my losses and frogged it, and the yarn is wound into little balls somewhere in the stash! Lovely colour, I must try to knit it up soon.

November 26, 2014

In one evening, and two lunchtimes, I have knitted more on this cardigan than the aran. Progress is good. It's all stocking stitch, except for a very simple lace pattern on each front. Most importantly I think that I can get it done in time. I'm not thinking of Mr C's birthday knitting, nor his Christmas knitting. Nor anyone elses!

I've had enough of rust coloured yarn now, thank you.

The cowl is coming along nicely, I misread the pattern, There are 16 repeats but after knitting four and thinking that the cowl would be very long, I r-read the pattern and it's 16 repeats in the round! Mightily relieved, I shou.d finish this in a few evenings! I'm hoping It'll be done for FO Friday!

November 25, 2014

This super easy cowl, knitted in lovely soft anonymous yarn, is frogged. I'd like to show you a photo, but it appears that I've deleted the ravelry project already! I spent an hour or so knitting on this on Saturday morning. looked at my ball of yarn. Small. with only about 3" of cowl knitted. I thought that I'd better weigh the ball, only 50g!. When I weighed the total yarn, it was only 80g!

Then I entered the ravelry space/time continuum. This is a Stitchnerds KAL, so I wanted to knit one of her cowls, and I only have five in my library. Five. How long can it take to choose a pattern? Hours, because I'm looking at the projects and yarns used... Eventually I settle on Wee Kilts, a super easy knit/purl textured pattern. Less than an hour to find the yarn, another anonymous ball, but this one looks a little bit thinner than the first, and it weighs 100g!

I cast on Saturday evening. Knit a few inches. Discover that I've failed to join without twisting. Frog. Restart. Knitted another few inches (without twisting) only this time I've failed to memorise the pattern with that first glance. Frog. By now it's bedtime, so I cast on again on Sunday morning. I have one pattern repeat done. No photo though, as I forgot to bring it into work to tak a photo! Oh well, it's on the needles, I just need to knit another 15 or so repeats in the next three evenings. Wish me luck. I will succeed.

November 24, 2014

I've not had a very successful knitting weekend. Sunday saw me picking up Portulaca which has been languishing for a few weeks now. This is for my mother, for Christmas. It needs to be done in about three weeks. Here's the last phohto

After dropping another stitch in the middle of a travelling cable, I cut my losses and frogged it. Nothing wrong with the design, but I just don' t have enough time to finish this! It's not a difficult pattern at all, but cabls take a littel too long for express knitting, and you have more stitches!

I spent the afternoon looking at other patterns. Eventually, early evening, I cast on the THIRD Christmas cardigan!

It's called Lady Marple, is plain, with a very easy lace section on each front. I'm afraid I liked rather a few of her patterns, and bought another two!

Just a few hours knitting (crinkly yarn!) and I've knitted the ribbing. I've had to pull out nearly a whole 100g ball of yarn, which is currently in a heap by my chair (Dawn quirk: when I frog I tend to not rewind, it's a sort of progress status!)

Hopefully the knitting goddesses will smile on me, and this will be the cardigan I stick with, and it goes smoothly and MrC doesn't decide to hoover around my chair and suck up the frogged yarn!!

November 21, 2014

Such a cute design. I've never knitted the adult version, but I may do so next Spring. Lovely and lacy.

The yarn is deep stash Rowan's 4ply soft, in a shocking pink. It's been in my stash for years, and really, I just didn't know what to knit with it. It's too bright for me or for accessories, but I know a couple of mums who like pink girly colours for their daughters, and this'll do nicely, thank you. I haven't weighed the cardigan, but it took about 2.5 balls of yarn.

A fun knit, I can see the recipient wearing this for ages. It's very stretchy!

November 19, 2014

The pattern is Crossing Paths Mitts. a super quick project. Mitts in Worsted weight. I might never knit a 4ply mitt again!!

These will be a Christmas present, such a great last minute gift.

The yarn is Rowan's Pure ool Worsted, in Garage. It's a dark green, who knows how Rowan come up with these ridiculous names. I asked Mr C if garage doors were typically this colour. He didn't know.

The pattern has two sizes, M or L. I went with the Large, because these are for a guy, and I've gone down two needle sizes, both to compensate for my looser tension and to make a slightly more dense mitt. Mr C tried them on and they fit him well.

The only quibble I have with the pattern is the cable abbreviations, T6Lr stands for Twist six left rib. Now my brain skimmed over 'L' and only saw 'r', and hence I knitted a Right twist. No need to put that little r on the end. I had to frog six rows! With mitts I'd frog rather than just reknit the cable part, so there's no loose stitches at the edges of the cable.

I'm already thinking of other worsted weight mitts. I've never contemplated the 52 pairs of socks in a year, but thick mitts might be possible? ...

November 18, 2014

I personally prefer to buy patterns rather than hoard free ones just because they're free. Nothing wrong with free patterns, most well established and good designers have a free pattern or two, as well writeen and edited as their paid patterns and a great way of introducing new customers to their collections. If I see a free pattern I'll quickly look at the popularity and ratings, and FO photos before storing it in my library. I also think that some of the Hot Right Now patterns fall into the crap category and are only there because they're free.

So it was with some trepication that I joined this group. The contributing Indie Designers are offering, for one week only, a 25% discount on between four and twenty of their patterns. I'mn glad that I've joined. I've foud loads of new to me designers with great patterns, I'm going to buy a handful of discounted patterns now but will certainly be buying more in the future. I do hope that this GAL benfits the designers, who do a fabulour but very undervalued job. There's currently over 4000 members of this ravelry group, and I;d like to think that the mojority are not only having a great time joining in with the KAL/CALs but are also going to buy more patterns at an undiscounted rate!

November 17, 2014

Portulaca is not really progressing. I've spent far too much time looking at ravelry on my phone than knitting! This IS a Christmas present, which needs to be completed, washed and dried (which takes forever) and posted. I do need to spend some time on this. I do need to get off ravelry!

I've decided not to do the waist decreases so it's just knitting as set all the way to the armholes. there are four charts, in pairs, mirror images. The small charts are very easy to memorise, aso it's just the larger ones I have to look at.

I'm enjoying knitting with the Rowan Pure Wool Worsted. I like the feel of it as I knit!